Fifteen killed in China terrorist attack

BEIJING — Fifteen people died in a terrorist attack in China’s rebellious Xinjiang region, state media reported Saturday, despite Beijing’s recent efforts to strengthen security in the far-west part of the country.

China’s Xinhua news service said 11 of the dead were “mobsters” who tossed explosive devices and attacked civilians with knives on a food market street in Shache County, south of Kashgar, about 1:30 p.m. Friday. Police on patrol nearby killed the 11 attackers, and 14 people were injured, Xinhua reported.

Shache, part of Kashgar Prefecture, is the same county where 37 people were reportedly killed in an ax-and-knife attack on July 28. According to Xinhua, a local court sentenced 12 of the attackers to death in October. Fifteen more were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

As with the reported attack in July, none of what Xinhua reported Saturday could be independently confirmed, including the assertion that “mobsters” were responsible. Foreign media are restricted from traveling freely in much of Xinjiang, an enormous region in western China beset by years of ethnic unrest.

Muslim Uighurs, who once were the majority in Xinjiang, have long resented Beijing’s rule and policies of assimilation. Over the past two years, Uighur militants have unleashed repeated attacks against police and civilians, not just in Xinjiang, but also in other regions of China.

As is standard in state media, Xinhua’s report Saturday did not describe the alleged terrorists, not did it detail the ethnicity of those attacked. Xinhua said “a number of explosive devices, knives and axes were found at the scene.”

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